Fowlerville's oldest grocery store to close

Longtime Curtis Grocery employee Larry Schmid, left, gave Kate Curtis the dollar she holds, inscribed with Larry's phone number as she left for California in 1999 to be married to her now ex, saying if she needed anything, to call. She was then an employee with Larry at the grocery story. After that marriage ended, she returned and married Craig Curtis, right, who co-owns the grocery story with his father Ken. Curtis Grocery will close soon.(Photo: Gillis Benedict/Livingston Daily)

Fowlerville is losing its oldest grocery store, more than likely before Christmas.

Curtis Grocery, at 130 S. Grand Ave., declined a 3-year contract from Associated Wholesale Grocers in October that would have required them to pay 5% of estimated sales, effectively ending the grocery store's 95-year run in the village.

"There's nothing we can do. It's out of our hands," co-owner Craig Curtis said Monday. "We couldn't meet their demands.

"We're too big for a party store and too small to compete with the big guys, Walmart or Meijer," he said.

Associated Wholesale Grocers purchased the store's previous supplier, Affiliated Foods Midwest Cooperative, in October, then offered the new contract. Wholesaler AWG did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Curtis and his father, Ken, opted instead to shutter their store. They have already stopped restocking shelves and are purchasing only meat, produce and items for the deli, bakery and dairy sections.

The store will have a clearance sale starting Sunday.

The Curtises ran the store from 1921 to 2004, leased the building on South Grand to Rosatti's Marketplace from 2004 to 2010, and re-opened under Curtis Grocery in 2010.

The closing will put 25 employees out of work, including 63-year-old Larry Schmid, who began working in the store when he was 16.

Schmid was around when the store burned down and re-opened in 1979.

"People just have to understand that's just the way it works these days," said Schmid, who runs the deli. "It's a bittersweet pill.

"I want the people in Fowlerville to know that (the closing) has nothing to do with the Curtis family. It's corporate America," he added.

Contact Livingston Daily business reporter Noe Hernandez at 517-552-2854 or nhernandez@livingstondaily.com. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter @sayyesnoe.